drupal cms – The A2 Postinghttps://www.a2hosting.com/blog
The Official Blog for A2 HostingMon, 21 Jan 2019 12:50:39 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.35 Things Everyone With a Drupal Website Should Knowhttps://www.a2hosting.com/blog/drupal-website-tipcs/
https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/drupal-website-tipcs/#respondMon, 12 Nov 2018 18:00:35 +0000https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=5713Even if you’ve been using Drupal for a while, there’s a good chance you haven’t explored everything the platform has to offer. You may even be missing out on key aspects that could provide new options or streamline your workflow. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of tips, tools, and tricks that can help you …

]]>Even if you’ve been using Drupal for a while, there’s a good chance you haven’t explored everything the platform has to offer. You may even be missing out on key aspects that could provide new options or streamline your workflow.

Fortunately, there are a wide variety of tips, tools, and tricks that can help you master the Drupal platform. Familiarizing yourself with these can ensure you’re making the most of your Drupal site, whether you’ve just built it or have been running it for a while.

In this article, we’ll look at the most critical things every Drupal user should know. Let’s get going!

1. How to Perform an Automatic Module Install

If you use Drupal, you’ll almost certainly want to download a module at some point. These code extensions can be installed on your site to add new functionality and features.

However, you want to be careful about how you install Drupal modules, especially if you’re a technical novice. In particular, you’ll have the choice to perform a manual or automatic install. If you’ve never directly interacted with files on a website’s server before, you should probably stick with an automatic installation.

If you try to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to install files onto your server manually, without understanding how this works and what could go wrong, you might create errors in your site’s directory by mistake. Therefore, automatic installs are a much safer (and quicker) choice for most beginners.

To perform an automatic install, first copy the URL of the add-on you want from Drupal’s module directory. Next, from your site’s admin dashboard, visit Extend > Install new module:

Paste the URL into the appropriate box, and click on the blue Install button. Drupal will automatically add the module files to your site’s database:

You will then be redirected to your site’s module list. Click on the box next to the module you just installed to enable it, and your new add-on will be ready to go.

2. How to Determine Which Modules Are Safe to Use

Since Drupal is an open-source platform, anyone can create modules. Inexperienced developers may write modules that have mistakes or security vulnerabilities. Installing the wrong module can harm or break your site, which is why it’s important to only install add-ons from trusted sources.

If you’re installing a module from Drupal’s own directory, look for a stamp of approval from the Drupal Security Advisory. It’s also a positive sign when a module has a large number of active installations. Plus, you’ll want to check out reviews from other users, and take a look at how recently the module was updated (anything over a year or so is a warning sign).

However, since the security advisory only covers projects hosted on Drupal.org, you’ll need to be even more cautious if you purchase a premium module from a developer. Again, this is where ratings and reviews from other Drupal users will come in very handy. When in doubt, test any new module out on a staging site before installing it on your live site.

Finally, if your budget allows, you may want to hire a developer to create a custom module. In that case, look for well-reviewed programmers who can show evidence of other successful modules they’ve built in the past. We’ll go over more about how to choose a qualified candidate in the next section.

3. How to Hire an Honest Programmer

Next up, it’s important to know how to hire a reputable programmer. Since Drupal can be challenging for beginners to use, you may want someone to put your site together for you. Additionally, because Drupal does not have a wide variety of pre-built tools, you might need to commission some custom features.

Therefore, every Drupal site owner with at least a modest budget should know how to hire a programmer. However, it can be difficult to gauge whether a given programmer is going to be worth your money. An unscrupulous person might skip over key details or leave security vulnerabilities in their work, leaving your site open to hackers.

Be prepared to spend a bit of money – a professional developer will charge what they’re worth, so be wary of fees that seem far underpriced when compared to the competition. Also, as we mentioned earlier, ask to see samples of work and references before engaging a new programmer.

In addition, make sure that the programmer is well-versed in Drupal specifically. Just because he or she has an impressive portfolio in WordPress, for example, does not mean those skills will translate to Drupal. Even for professionals, each platform has its own learning curve, so you should make sure to hire a programmer with plenty of Drupal experience.

4. How to Optimize Your Website

Once your site is up and running, you’ll still need to maintain it and keep an eye on its performance. This includes making sure that your site is running at top speed. You want to keep your site’s performance high, since impatient users often abandon a site that takes longer than a few seconds to load.

For example, make sure to enable caching, which uses stored browser files to reduce page loading times. You can also install modules such as Image Optimize, which automatically reduces your site’s image files for improved speed.

5. What to Do If You’ve Been Hacked

Last but not least, it’s important to plan for worst-case scenarios. No matter how careful you are, there’s always a chance your site will be hacked. In fact, there is a new hacker attack roughly every 40 seconds.

When it comes to hacking, prevention is the best policy. The first and most important thing you can do is maintain regular site backups. This gives you the option to easily restore your website if anything goes wrong.

In addition, make sure you’re using the most up-to-date version of Drupal, and always update your modules when new versions are released. This gives you access to the latest security patches. Of course, you’ll also want to use a strong password.

If you do think you’ve been hacked, you should immediately log into your A2 Hosting account and change the cPanel password. Then, you can follow this guide to combat the threat.

Conclusion

When you first build a Drupal site, it can seem like there’s a huge amount of information to take in. You’ll want to focus on the most crucial details first, in order to prioritize maintaining your site without becoming overwhelmed.

The five most important things everyone with a Drupal site should know include how to:

Perform an automatic module install.

Determine which modules are safe.

Hire an honest programmer.

Optimize your website.

Deal with hacking attempts.

Do you have any questions about how to maintain your Drupal site? Let us know in the comments section below!

]]>https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/drupal-website-tipcs/feed/0https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/content/uploads/2018/10/drupal-homepage-150x150.png3 Drupal Modules You Should Be Usinghttps://www.a2hosting.com/blog/drupal-modules/
https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/drupal-modules/#respondMon, 29 Oct 2018 23:23:44 +0000https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=5666Drupal is widely considered to be a standout and powerful Content Management System (CMS). However, are you making the most of your Drupal website? If you haven’t explored some of the platform’s most popular modules, you may not be taking advantage of everything it has to offer. Modules are pre-built tools that can take your …

]]>Drupal is widely considered to be a standout and powerful Content Management System (CMS). However, are you making the most of your Drupal website? If you haven’t explored some of the platform’s most popular modules, you may not be taking advantage of everything it has to offer.

Modules are pre-built tools that can take your site to the next level. There’s a wide range of modules available, offering everything from website backups to developer tools (and much more). These are an excellent way to expand your site’s functionality, without the expense of hiring a developer to build custom solutions.

This article will show you how you can make your Drupal site even stronger, by introducing a few of the modules you’ll absolutely want to have. Let’s get going!

A Brief Introduction to Drupal Modules

Before we get started, let’s quickly go over the concept of modules. Drupal is an open-source CMS, and it comes with a certain set of tools out of the box. However, it can only do so much by default. That’s why the wider Drupal community of developers creates modules, which are a way of expanding the platform’s functionality easily and cheaply.

Some of the most useful modules, such as the CK Editor, end up being incorporated into Drupal over time. However, there are still many features you can only achieve with dedicated modules. Fortunately, any user can download and install a module on their site, even if you’re a relative technical novice.

Of course, not all modules are equally useful or safe. It’s important to avoid potentially harmful modules, for example, as they can be security risks. However, there are plenty of popular modules by reputable developers, which offer functions that can drastically expand the way you use your site.

How to Install Modules on Your Drupal Site

In a moment, we’re going to look at a few of the best modules out there. Before that, however, you’ll need to know how to install them. To add a module to your Drupal site via the automatic import feature, you can follow a few simple steps. First, in your site’s admin panel, click on the Extend tab and select Install New Module:

From there, you can perform an automatic import of the module’s files. Either paste in the module’s link from the Drupal extension directory, or click on Choose file and select the module’s .zip or .tar.gz file. You can download this file from the Drupal extension directory, or from a developer’s site once you’ve purchased a premium module:

Once the file is imported, select the option Enable newly added modules to start it up. From there, it may begin to work automatically, or you might have to configure some settings (depending on the module’s purpose and complexity).

If necessary, you can also install a module manually. This just requires extracting the contents of its .zip or .tar.gz file, and adding the entire folder to your site’s directory in the appropriate location.

3 Drupal Modules You Should Be Using

Now you know how to install Drupal modules, you’re ready to start deciding which ones you’ll add to your site. There are a lot of useful options out there, but many are only appropriate for certain types of sites. The following three modules, on the other hand, are essential in nearly any situation. Plus, all three are completely free.

It’s no secret that Drupal can be a little challenging to use, especially for relative beginners. With that in mind, Chaos Tool Suite is a must for web developers working on Drupal sites. It offers a wide range of tools that make certain webdev functions easier.

This module’s key features include a form wizard, which helps you generate forms without having to manually code them, and tools that enable you to clean up your CSS to improve page loading times. You also get access to exportables and object caching, making it easier for your site to store and use ‘objects’. These are a way to store a set of variables and methods, so that you can easily reuse them on different parts of your site. This can be a huge time-saver.

Next up, Pathauto makes it far easier to create user-friendly links. Drupal does not have a built-in feature for automatically organizing URLs for certain types of content. Pathauto enables you to set up an automatic system for generating nested URLs.

For example, if you publish a blog post under a certain category, you could tell Drupal to use the URL yoursite.com/category/blog_post_slug. By default, the URL would simply be yoursite.com/blog_post_slug, which doesn’t offer the reader as much information. What’s more, this feature can also have a positive effect on your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Finally, backing up your Drupal site is crucial. If your site is hacked, or if something is mistakenly broken or deleted, having a recent backup in place enables you to ‘undo’ the problem. The Backup and Migrate module enables easy automatic backups, which can take some of the worry off your shoulders.

This module can also be customized to suit your unique needs. For instance, you can choose to back up all or just some of your site’s database. In addition, you can use this module to clone or migrate your site. This means you can quickly create a test environment, or even move your site to a new server.

Conclusion

Drupal modules are a smart way to expand your site’s functionality. They can help make your site more user-friendly, get it noticed, or simply provide helpful tools for everyday management.

Some of the most popular Drupal modules you might want to consider using on your site include:

Chaos Tool Suite: Provides a group of tools that make certain tasks much easier, including a form wizard and CSS caching.

Pathauto: Offers you a way to automatically generate SEO-friendly links.

Backup and Migrate: Makes it easy to set up automatic backups so you can restore, clone, or migrate your site.

Do you have any questions about using these Drupal modules? Let us know in the comments section below!

]]>https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/drupal-modules/feed/0https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/content/uploads/2018/10/woman-on-laptop-150x150.pngAn Introduction to Drupal (And How to Get Started)https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/introduction-to-drupal/
https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/introduction-to-drupal/#respondFri, 12 Oct 2018 21:12:57 +0000https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=5536Drupal is one of the top three Content Management Systems (CMSs) on the web right now. Powerful and lean, it’s perfect for enterprise business sites that need to maximize performance. However, diving into Drupal can seem daunting at first glance. Fortunately, there are ways to demystify Drupal. There is something of a steep learning curve, …

]]>Drupal is one of the top three Content Management Systems (CMSs) on the web right now. Powerful and lean, it’s perfect for enterprise business sites that need to maximize performance. However, diving into Drupal can seem daunting at first glance.

Fortunately, there are ways to demystify Drupal. There is something of a steep learning curve, but you don’t need to have a deep technical background in order to master it. With a beginner’s guide (and a little patience) anyone willing to take some extra time can how to use this CMS effectively.

In this post, we’ll tell you a bit about the history of Drupal, as well as the advantages of the platform over other website builders. This will help you decide if it’s worth investing the time and effort required to learn it. Finally, we’ll offer a short guide on how to get started. Let’s begin!

First, let’s go over a bit of history. Drupal got its start as a message board named Drop.org, founded by Dries Buytaert and Hans Snijder. In 2001, Buytaert released Drupal as an open-source code, so that others could modify and expand upon it.

Drupal’s first big break came in 2003 when it was used to build DeanSpace, a large collection of connected message boards used for members of the Howard Dean campaign to communicate with each other. Drupal has since expanded into the complex CMS that it is today. Yet, it’s still built by a collective open-source community.

This means that, even if you end up hiring a web developer to create your site, there’s a user-friendly interface where you can create text, images, and other content. WYSIWYG editors give you the independence to run your site without constantly having to send text changes back and forth to a developer. You can even try out a free online demo to see what using this editor is like.

The Pros and Cons of Using Drupal for Your Website

Although Drupal is very powerful, it is also somewhat difficult for beginners to learn. That may lead you to wonder why should you use Drupal instead of a simpler system, such as WordPress or Joomla!

Ultimately, Drupal is an excellent middle ground between those CMS options and building your own website from scratch. It enables you to create complex sites, but also has an extensive library of modules that save you time, and let even dedicated non-coders add new features to their sites. Even if you hire a developer, Drupal may save you money in the long run versus an HTML site. That’s because its WYSIWYG interface enables you to make text and content changes on your own.

If you put in the time to understand Drupal, it can be quite rewarding. For coders in particular, there’s an entire community out there building systems that anyone can use. It also offers higher security and better enterprise-level scaling than any other CMS on the market. Plus, once your site is set up, the dashboard is relatively easy to use.

However, if you’re planning to build a Drupal site on your own, you should probably have some coding experience under your belt. It can take a significant amount of time and effort to learn the system from scratch. The main con of Drupal is that, if you don’t want to hire a developer, it is not as beginner-friendly as WordPress or Joomla!

How to Get Started with Drupal

As we’ve mentioned, Drupal can seem daunting at the start. However, getting started and beginning to experiment with its powerful systems is well within reach.

There are a few simple steps you can follow, if you want to create a new Drupal site as a complete newbie:

Purchase a hosting plan with one-click install feature. A hosting plan with Drupal pre-loaded saves you the trouble of figuring out how to install it yourself – which is perfect for beginners (plus, our Drupal hosting comes already optimized for speed and performance).

Get to know the core modules.The core modules are at the heart of Drupal. Understanding what they are and how they work is vital.

Begin building your site. As we’ve discussed, Drupal 8 comes with a WYSIWYG editor that you can use to start adding text and images to your pages right away.

Ask for help when needed. For anything you don’t understand, Drupal has an active forum that’s very accepting of questions.

Consider hiring a professional. If you’re lost, or if you’re creating a very complex site, consider hiring a professional to get the ball rolling. Then, focus on learning how to update content and make small changes once your site’s framework is in place. For example, if you can’t find a module that does what you want, you may end up needing to hire a programmer to build you something custom.

Drupal is a flexible and powerful solution for websites. This is especially true if you either have some coding experience yourself, or the resources to hire a designer. Once you put in the effort to learn how the system works, you’ll be able to take advantage of its security and enterprise-level scaling ability (among other advantages).

Conclusion

Drupal is well-suited to experienced programmers, beginners with the resources to hire a developer, or simply anyone willing to take the time to learn how it works. In particular, it’s a strong choice if your site could benefit from the advanced security and speed that comes along with this platform.

If you’re new to Drupal, it helps to purchase a hosting plan with Drupal pre-installed and optimized, and take some time to understand the core modules and how they work. Then, you can begin building your site with the WYSIWYG editor – the best way to learn is through practice. If you get stuck, consider asking a question or hiring a pro for your site’s initial setup and customization.

Do you have any other questions about using Drupal? Let us know in the comments section below!